Hopi Agriculture

Posted on June 19, 2009 by Petra Derkzen

Kachina dolls

The Hopi have many spiritual and ceremonial places and events. We experienced one of these events, a Kachina dance in a village on Third Mesa. In the months of April, May and June, the ‘day dances’ take place. From February until July these dances involve Kachinas. The Kachinas are the spiritual essence for the Hopi, their appearance connects the Hopi to their ancestral spirits, the elements and the universe. The Kachinas are believed to live at the San Francisco Peaks, they appear from February to July in different types of dances. All dances are connected in some way to rain and harvest. As rain is the limiting factor, their religious and ceremonial life cannot be separated from agriculture and food and being Hopi.

The Hopi strongly hold to their ceremonies and traditions and tribal rules. After some experiences with unethical use of material gathered by visitors, one is reminded everywhere that taking pictures or notes of the ceremonies, the people, the villages and the landscape are forbidden. Doing research in this area is also subject to tribal rules. The data collected cannot be possessed by the researcher/ university. It remains with the Hopi and each usage of material has to be negotiated and agreed upon.

Hopi agriculture and gathering were once the sole source of sustenance. Mainly dependent on rain in the high arid dessert of Arizona, the Hopi planted corn, beans, squash, cotton and gourds that were particularly resistant to the drought and pests of the area. We saw cornfields where the corn is now approx 30 centimeter high. It has been a good spring so far, with quite a bit of rain. Corn is planted very deep, with a planting stick around 6 seeds are sown together up to 18 inches deep into the soil. The depth of the hole depends on judgment in terms of soil moisture. Many corn plants growing together could push through the sandy soil. And each bundle of seeds stands 4 footsteps from each other. In between beans are sown as well as squash around the edges.

Hopi ceremony requires a number of different kinds of Hopi corn, blue, white, yellow, red, purple and mixed. There are at least twelve types of Hopi corn, each with separate ceremonial functions. Grinding corn is a particularly important ritual act for women. At menarche, young girls have a grinding ceremony where they make piki, a wafer-thin flat bread made from blue corn and water. Piki bread is part of the food that the women cook for the various dances and rituals. We saw a piki bread cooker, a thick flat back stone over a fire. Courage and skill is needed to cook the bread because the women cover their hand in the batter and quickly whip their hand over the extremely hot stone. The result is a super thin rolled bread.

Canyon de Chelly, where de Navajo farm

Job opening – Assistant/Associate Professor in Food Sociology

Posted on June 18, 2009 by Han Wiskerke

Job description

As assistant/associate professor you will teach and coordinate Bachelor and Master courses for the Bachelor and Master programme International Development Studies (specialization Sociology of Development) and for the Master programme Food Technology (specialization Gastronomy), and supervise Bachelor and Master thesis research for these programmes. You will undertake independent research and coordinate international research projects, specifically focusing on food production and provision in metropolitan regions and its importance for sustainable regional development as well as its significance for issues of public health, rural and regional employment, environmental quality and urban-rural relationships. If you qualify for an associate professorship you are expected to coordinate the Rural Sociology Group’s research theme “Dynamics and sustainability of regional food networks”. Other aspects of the job include project acquisition, training and supervision of PhD students and participation in various research and/or education committees. Continue reading →

Four corners Indian country

Posted on June 16, 2009 by Petra Derkzen

Since Saturday I am staying in Keams Canyon, in the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. For the last ten years, Cornelia Flora has been doing research and extension work with a colleague from Arizona State University, Matt Livingston and organizations at the Reservation. This visit therefore includes some meetings on current projects.

Hopi Indians are a pueblo tribe living in 13 villages located on the 2472320 acres (just over a million hectares) of the Hopi Reservation in north-central Arizona. With their ancestors coming from the south, they are sometimes categorized under as Anasazi; southern based tribes sharing a coming language root. However, we learned in the Archeology Museum in Blending, Utah, that this is a name taken over into English from Navajo. In Navajo (themselves coming from north) it means something like ‘ancient enemy’. A more correct way to talk about the different tribes that came from the south, therefore, is Ancestral Puebloans. The Hopi Reservation is surrounded by the Navajo Reservation and there is an Apache Reservation nearby.

The Hopi villages are mostly located on three peninsular “mesas” that are the southwestern “fingers” of Black Mesa, high ridges elevated around a 1000 meters above the Canyon land plateaus. The Hopis are the oldest continuous inhabitants of northern Arizona; some of their ancestors may have lived in the region as early as A.D. 700 (Linford 2005).

“I never saw so much empty land”, I remarked to Matt in the car yesterday. Indeed, books talk about this desert land as some of the most desolate country in the United States. “It might seem empty to you” Matt replied, “but it is not for the Hopi”. It might not seem ‘productive’ in any Western economic sense, but this land represents many things for them. “There can be trails or holy places where their shrines live”. And, “their cattle graze here and they cultivate their indigenous ground races maize” Matt explained. In such an extensive way that it is hardly visible for the eye! With approx 300 millimeters rainfall a year and no rivers in the neighborhood they are adapted to their circumstances, quite different from the Dutch wetlands….

One of the projects is centered around Hopi food. The aim of the project is to help communities to understand Hopi traditional food, to collect best practices about growing and gathering food as well as to appreciate the spiritual aspect of food. It is an awareness raising project, helping people realize what they already know. One of the result so far has been a Hopi traditional cook book and follow up activities are now planned, such as intergenerational cooking workshops.

Inspiring encounters in the Westerkwartier

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Wiebke Wellbrock

On Wednesday evening, I participated in a Plattelandscafé (countryside-café) at the Natuurboerderij Lammerburen (nature development farm) in Oldehove, Westerkwartier, Groningen. The aim of the gathering was to present results of past projects, ongoing projects and project ideas aimed at ensuring the sustainability of the predominantly rural Westerkwartier. Jan Oomkes, chairmen of the LAG Westerkwartier (LEADER) and alderman of Zuidhorn municipality, opened the evening with a summary of activities in the Westerkwartier, including activities of the citizen action group (WSI), the Westerkwartier as LEADER-region, the community house in Grootegast and numerous projects which have been realised using money from the EU (LEADER), the Rural Area Programme of the province of Groningen as well as the different municipalities. Thereafter, the word was given to different project leaders and the present 60 visitors were informed about ongoing projects and activities.

With regard to my upcoming DERREG (see previous post) research activities on rural business networks and the support of rural initiatives and regional learning in the Westerkwartier, the presented projects were highly interesting. For instance, one suggested project idea described the construction of hiking routes through the Westerkwartier, improving the touristic infrastructure and stimulating tourism as a new economic source for the region. Potentially, the project would thus provide possibilities for farmers to engage in side activities such as farm cafés and touristic accommodation and would help to establish networks between different stakeholders of similar interest. A further interesting project that was introduced is a new network for local business women (Wichterwest). Since the DERREG project aims to put special emphasis on the role of women in rural development, the newly formed network would be an interesting idea to study and could act as a best practise example for other rural areas throughout Europe.

Conversations at the plattlandscafé

The evening was accompanied by guitar music- including a self-composed song about the Westerkwartier-, drinks and snacks. The inspiring atmosphere provided a good opportunity for everyone to exchange thoughts and ideas about the development of the Westerkwartier. Considering the enthusiasm of the people present at the gathering and their commitment to the development of their region, the event was also for me a motivating experience, highlighting once again the significance of research towards ensuring the sustainability of rural regions in the era of globalization.

First in time, first in right

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Petra Derkzen

For opposite reasons as why we created our “Waterschappen” in the Netherlands, there are Water Laws in the Western States of the US. In the states where I have been the last couple of days, Colorado, Utah and Arizona rainfall is pretty scarce. On our field excursion as part of the Changing Lands, Changing Hands conference, our guides tried to explain the extremely complicated water rights system of Colorado. Fortunately, somebody already told me over diner. “You don’t own the water that rains down on your land” my diner partner had said. Eehh?

It means that you cannot put a well on your land or use creek, river or lake water running on or near your land. You can only use water if you have water rights. Water rights are connected to ditches dug by the first settlers in 1860, and to Ditch companies who manage them. Those who claimed first, have more senior rights. The right equals to a share in the company; a certain quantity of water, measured in acre-feet (literally an acre of land with a foot water on top). In years of drought, those who claimed last will not receive any water, only for those with senior rights, the tap will be opened. Not all farm land has water rights, those who farm without, are known as the dry land farmers, usually farming wheat and/or cattle.

Right can be traded separately from the land. Each new development (housing, offices, malls) needs to have water rights too. Water rights are therefore sometimes more worth than the land itself. And it even happens that, in years of drought, it is more profitable for farmers to lease the water rights to a city or county than to farm.

The Boulder county, one of the counties near Denver has a very progressive land use policy in place ever since 1978, an exception to the rule. This county is active to facilitate a new generation of farmers, such as those willing to start farming vegetables for farmers markets on small plots. We visited one such farmers association, which started two years ago. The land, including the water rights needed, is owned by the Boulder county which leases it to them against reduced prices. Otherwise this enterprise – and to many a dream – would not be possible.

(picture of Bart Eleveld Oregon State University)